How do you feel about warez?

I dont believe in copyrights.

other i don't care

What do you do for a living? Mind if I steal it?

I think it's fun but it sucks if and when companies lose money because of it.

I dont do anything for a living, ILJ, I write occasionally though, and it is vbery often that I see my works in other peoples anthologies, on their webpages, etc. without my having given them persmission. It doesnt bother me a bit.

I have to agree with cody as far as my work is concerned. I don't plan to ever make a living from my writing. It is a creative outlet for me. I share it freely...copy it ,share it, pass it off as your own, whatever...To me, anyone who would want to "steal" my stuff, is paying me an incredible compliment.

However, IF, my sole source of income came from my writing, I would feel differently I suppose. All upset and crap. I don't ever want to feel all upset and crap because something I do...out of love....is taken from me....that's why I offer it without restriction or cost.

I make music that I give to people for free, so I know where you're coming from on that angle. But I pay my rent with software, and when people steal it they're stealing from me; I'm sure we can agree that's bad. I imagine I'd be more nonchalant about it were I in a position not to do anything for a living.

ILJ what's your email?

I'd rather not give it out here. If you want to post yours, I'll get in touch so long as you promise to keep my address and identity private.

royo2@hotmail.com *scouts honor*...wait a minute..i'm not a scout...um...i promise

I'll drop you a line when I get home this evening.

coolio!

oh yeah, bill if you happen by this survey...i'm curious as to how you feel about burnt cd's...because i noticed someone selling them on your musictz...

I avoid that sort of stuff, I'm always worried that it is full of bugs and viruses or something. One of my friends almost exclusively uses that kind of stuff, and his computer is always crashing.

Pirated software is an interesting topic. I don't think it's so bad really, I used to do it when I was young - games for my Atari home computer. I don't do it much now, though there are probably some slip ups here and there. However, I think it's important that it remain illegal. If it were made legal, the software industry would fall apart.
I actually run a web site where I routinely punish users if they pirate on the site.

It's against the rules... tell me who and I'll beat the crap out of him.

Ah, but what if someone published your work under their name? Wouldn't that piss you off?

.....it was me

I must be punished!

nope....That would be cool...because once it's out of me....it's just words....I don't own them. It's the actual act of creation that I'm in it for. After that, my investment ends.

What if they put your words in a book and sold it for lots of money?

go HERE...it says it in his comment!

by the way...GREAT site...you're awesome! you are a db GOD!

I have never had lots of money.
I probably will never have lots of money.
You can't miss what you've never had.
I work. I earn $$ for the work I do.
We get by.
I'm happy.
I have what I need to live without too much struggle.
If someone steals my words and passes them off as their own and earns alot of cash for them, then their motives are way different than mine. I guess I'd feel bad for them...pity them for not having their own original thoughts to sell. They may get rich monetarily, but they'd always be creatively bankrupt in my eyes.
you see?

but, that's your money! (ok, I give up)

"However, I think it's important that it remain illegal. If it were made legal, the software industry would fall apart." Yes, of course. I don't think the software creators should suffer because of warez. They're the one's who made such wonderful tools for us to use, they should be rewarded. But I have to admit, I think in many ways it's positive. I used warez to evaluate a lot of software when I was just getting into 3d. It definitely helped me to save money, because a lot of $1000 programs were not what I wanted at all. Since I wasn't going to school to learn the trade, I would not have really had a clue what to buy in the beginning, or what suited me. It helped me to decide what main program to buy, because I am not filthy rich to be wasting my money on everything. Some of that stuff in my opinion is not at all worth what they get for it. But as long as someone likes it... Even $400 for used software is a lot of money to pay for something you haven't even been able to try (Sucks when they don't have demos. I don't know why, but I guess they're geared to selling to people in the industry who are already experienced).
Also, what does warez have to do with stealing someones work and passing it off as your own?? It's not the same thing at all. The original creators and distributors of the software still get all the credit in all my experience with warez anyway. It's not like people are stealing the program and giving it a different name. That's another thing entirely. The only thing the creators and distributors aren't getting is money, initially anyway, although in reality they may be getting more exposure.
Oh, by the way, I feel it's really wrong when people try to sell warez. But if they are offering it free, I think it's positive when after people try the software and decide they are going to use it a lot, they go out and legally purchase it. People waste way too much money on stuff they at first think they need and will use, but in the end end up never using.

I think the rate of people who actually buy the real thing after making use of a pirated copy is fairly low. Copyrights are all about permission. You are using someone's stuff without their permission. Yes, it's a lesser crime than stealing it and especially re-selling it, but it's still a crime.

The copyright is unusual in that it is called a ``right,'' but it is an artificial rather than a natural right. No one has the ``God-given'' right to prevent people from copying their ideas, but it was decided to grant people the temporary legal right to do so in order to promote art and literature by giving artists the ability to collect royalties for the copying and distribution of their work.

Because of the artificial and arbitrary nature of the copyright, it is common for people to disregard it, or to consider it an unfair imposition.

On the one hand, it seems to me that people who illegally copy materials for their own benefit are behaving badly. There are good reasons for copyrights, and they are sabotaging those reasons for petty personal gain.

On the other hand, I think that many of the copyright holders have lost sight of the fact that the copyright is a form of government subsidy, and not a natural right. Part of the problem IMO is that copyrights are often described as ``intellectual property,'' as if it were possible for someone to own an idea, or to steal one. Ideas cannot be owned in the sense that physical objects can, and using the same language to describe both has resulted in much confusion.

"I think the rate of people who actually buy the real thing after making use of a pirated copy is fairly low."

Really? You think so? I don't. I've visited a lot of warez boards where people mentioned buying the software they liked. I don't see why anyone wouldn't want to do that if they have the money. If they like the product a lot, they'd want to support it's continued existence.

People are lazy, why pay for something when you already have it for free - that takes effort.

I thought you can't copyright ideas anyway? What you are copyrighting and trying to protect is the work you have put into that idea. Personally I feel that is as much of a natural right as anything else in life possibly can be (which is not saying much admittedly).

Obviously it depends on what you consider to be an ``idea.'' The fact is that what copyrights do is require people to get permission before copying the intellectual works of others. What is being protected is not the effort which was put into creating the work, or even the work itself. What is being protected is the ability of the original author to make a profit by selling copies of the work at artificially inflated prices by virtue of a government-mandated monopoly on producing copies of it.

I think copyrights are a good idea, but it is ridiculous to suggest that they are a natural right. That's just not what ``natural right'' means.

Personally I feel the concept of a "natural right" is so completely artificial (in fact the words "natural right" are an oxymoron in my opinion) that the concept of copyright is no less a legitimate one than any other.